Wednesday, November 23, 2011

We’re currently having such a wonderful autumn
that I’m glad I don’t have to suffer with the cold. I usually bundle up with a
half dozen sweaters when it’s freezing outside. The advantage of this weather
is that I can wear and show off my t-shirt. Today I am wearing the World Series
Champions Cardinals t-shirt. I bought it for retail $25, and got the Pujols
version. I don’t normally buy retail but I was caught up in the Finals
excitement. It was worth it though because everywhere I go, I get a thumbs up.

I wanted to start posting my hat collection on
here, so I’ve decided to start with the hat that started it all for me; The
Franchise made by Twins Enterprise. It
was around the mid 2000’s when I first discovered the hat. Before that I owned a couple New Era
fitted’s but I never wore them much. I
wasn’t much of a hat guy because I never felt comfortable with how they looked
on me. Yet in the back of my mind I
dreamed of what the perfect hat would look like; it would be preppy in style,
the body would be canvas-like material and the brim would be easy to bend. I also dreamed that it would be a Yankees
hat, because I loved New York at the time (the city not the team, lol).

Then one day I was
walking around the mall when I discovered the hat that I was dreaming of inside
of a hat store (Hat World). Not only was
it better than what I had been dreaming of, but it also looked good on me and
felt comfortable. The only problem was
the price, retail was $32 Canadian. I
had never paid that much for a hat, so I had to pass on buying it. Yet, when I met up with my dad and I told him
about the hat, he immediately gave me the money and told me to go buy it. I practically flew to the store to buy the hat
because I wanted it so bad.

Ever since that day I
have loved the Franchise hat, and have been an avid collector of the
style. However, this first hat is the
most meaningful hat in my collection not only because it’s the most comfortable
hat in the world, but also because my dad bought it for me. And even though it is now torn, dirty and
stinks it will always be my favourite hat.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

The Nike Air Force 1 papercraft is a very
special papercraft for me because it’s the one that triggered my interest into
papercraft as a hobby. I love it because
it mixes my love for sneakers with the joy of constructing something from
paper. The template was created by Shin,
who is also a sneaker head and has done various other papercrafts. The best part of this build is that it only
requires one sheet of paper, so it’s really easy to do. First off what you want to do is cut each
piece individually neatly. Trust me the
cleaner your cut, the better the final product will look.

You might want to cut out two copies of this
template because it can get a little confusing.
That is unless you follow my video and see which pieces are glued on to
one another first. After I cut each
piece I also like to fold the creases so that once they’re glued you won’t have
to do it. Once the major pieces are
constructed the final piece is the laces.
I like to take my time here by cutting and gluing each string
individually. When it’s complete it
gives it a nice 3D look to them.

If someone were to ask me what is the best
papercraft to start with, I would say this is an absolute must. It’s not easy, but the final product is so
rewarding. While, Shin has done many
other shoes since then, this is still his best work. I’m still hoping though, that one day he
might want to do a Nike SB model as well.
If not, I will attempt to create one myself.... err... but don’t hold
your breath, lol. Till then I will keep doing this same model, but in different
colors.

Monday, November 21, 2011

During the Spring of 2008 Nike had a huge
presentation (Innovation Summit) about the new products and technologies it
intended to showcase for the Beijing Summer Olympics. After reading the book “Sneaker Wars’, I came
to realize how important the Summer Olympics are for the sports industry. Basically it is a time when the whole world
is watching, and if an athlete wins gold the products that they wore will also
be winners in retail (people will buy them).
What better way to show people the quality of your product, then by
making sure the gold medalist is wearing them.
Of course that was a bigger deal a couple decades ago when Adidas and
Puma were fighting one another for global dominance of the sportswear
market. Today Nike is king by covering
almost every sport imaginable.

Being at the top means, Nike must be cutting
edge and inventive in the products they release. I’ve always loved this about Nike, they just
seem to be so far ahead of the competition with their designs and quality. While retro’s are nice, new sneaker
technology is what gets me most excited.
For that presentation what had me most jaw-dropping excited was a
material called Lunar Foam. It was first
used by NASA on the space shuttle seats, and would now be used as insoles for
running shoes. They would give the
sneaker less weight, and be able to absorb more shocks from running. Another new innovation was Flywire. It consisted of using very complex sewing
machines to stitch on a long piece of thread that was aesthetically very
simple. The thread was called vectran,
and was very strong and flexible.

I wanted to get a pair of Nike’s that featured
Flywire and Lunar Foam as soon as they hit retail stores, but unfortunately
they never released in Canada until later.
When they finally came to Canada, I waited until they went on sale to
purchase them. My first pair are these LunarGlide’s. I have since been able to use them for a
couple of weeks now, and I really love them.
The Lunar Foam did give me a little pain on my left foot initially
because I wanted an arch support, but eventually my foot got used to it, and
they now feel comfortable. This really
impressed me about the Dynamic Support system on the shoe, which adjusts to the
foot as it moves. The Flywire was also a
concern initially because I always assumed the thicker material (such as
leather, or nylon) would be stronger.
Yet the Flywire has not only held up better, but has also given my foot
more breathability. The LunarGlide also
carries the Nike+ symbol, signifying that you can install an ipod sensor in the
sockliner to track your calories. This
shoe features the best of Nike and I highly recommend it.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

This has been a toy I have been waiting months
and months for. The first time I heard
about it was in the beginning of the year and ever since then I had to watch
other videos and pictures of people who already had it. I assumed it would eventually release in my
town, but time passed by and it never did.
I had hoped that when it finally did release I would be able to buy it
on sale, and buy a couple more for my friends as well. But all this waiting as of this date kept me
anxious till the point I couldn’t wait any longer and I had to buy Wheeljack
online.

It wasn’t so bad because the quality on this toy
just blew my mind and expectations.
Okay... I might not be a hard-core Transformers collector, but I do
consider this high quality from Hasbro.
Besides I try not to be ‘hard-core’ in collecting in general because it
tends to leave you jaded and never satisfied.
From this position I am able to judge an item on my most basic judgments
of whether I like it or not. And this
toy I really love.

To start off with, what attracted me initially
was the color scheme used; white, red and green. For some reason it reminds me of a pizza box
at a pizzeria. Anything that relates to
pizza is a winner in my book. I then
also liked the sports car vehicle mode the toy can transform into, and the way
he looks when you transform him into a robot.
The transformation process is also easy, and you are able to transform
him into 3 different types of modes; sports car, flight mode, and robot.

I have absolutely no complaints about this toy, and
would consider this my favourite Transformers toy of the year. Once you learn to build him he is very fun to
play with. I also like that he doesn’t
have any issues with limbs popping off like I did with my Roadbuster
figure. I highly recommend this figure,
and as soon as I see him in a store I plan to buy some more toys of him.